Post navigation

P.J Parker’s Fire on the Water Blog Tour

As part of P.J Parker’s Fire on the Water Blog Tour here is some information about the book and the author.

Fire On The Water: A Companion To Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

By P.J. Parker

Category: Drama

Publication Date: 12th December 2013

ISBN paperback: 978-1-61213-196-2

ISBN ebook: 978-1-61213-197-9

Book Summary

Rachel, a young American biographer researching the life of Mary Shelley in Montreux, Switzerland, is entangled and consumed by the escalating threads of her investigation. Shards of Shelley’s creation are exhumed from the past. Precious memories are hacked and sutured to the unthinkable. The unblemished flesh of the one she loves is stripped back to reveal what lies beneath—aspects of Frankenstein incised and ripped from the nineteenth century and transplanted into her own.

Through a landscape of archival documents, the contents of a trunk unopened for generations, and a spiraling progression of dismembered cadavers and uncertainties, Fire on the Water: A Companion to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein interweaves Rachel’s search with the plot of Frankenstein and the horrific occurrences of the summer of 1816 when Mary Shelley dared to dip her quill into the ink of her darkest of waking dreams.

The truth is given life.

Praise for Fire On The Water

The impossible has been done… a really great novel inspired by a really great novel.

-ARC Review, Goodreads

There were some particularly great moments in this story. Times when your own heart is beating as fast as that of the character you are experiencing things with. I loved that the author balanced moments of excitement with a deep back story of Shelley’s research and composition of her famed novel.

P.J. Parker was born and raised in rural Australia. With a bachelor of science in architecture from the University of New South Wales, he has traveled and lived extensively around the world, focusing on cultures of historic interest and buildings of architectural significance before transitioning into a career as a fraud analyst and programmer with a leading international financial institution. An avid reader and researcher, P.J. undertakes his writing with a passionate and exacting attention to detail.

A Personal Interview with P.J. Parker

1.What is a usual day in the life of P.J. Parker:

My usual day starts at 7am to get up and catch the jitney into New York where I work for a major financial organization. Eight to nine hours analyzing fraud, writing code to detect or prevent, creating detection processes and then back on the jitney to home—mentally exhausted. I have all the best intentions of writing every night but it just does not happen. Somewhere in there my stories and characters are evolving for the next three books. Sentences and characteristics form, ready for when they need to be written down. At the moments that I am able to sit and write, the words gush out as fast as I can type. Version after version has already done the rounds in my head and any chapter or sentence refuses to be written until it is ready for a good first draft that I and my characters are happy with.

2.What’s your favorite TV show:

My favorite TV show is Bones. I admire the character of Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan with her straight forwardness and logical outlook. Temperance sees the world based on a vast knowledge of humanity and science without the artificial filters of society. The same simplistic and blunt observation comes through in my work. My chapters are usually very short, to the point, with no waffle. I’m not really sure how to waffle.

3.Favorite novel:

At the moment my favorite novel is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The story format is intriguing, the underlying social commentary still relevant and much of the prose breathtaking—especially when Mary breathes life into her creation. Mary has a wording that is different from her contemporaries—very much that of a woman of the new age daring to enter and conquer a literary world dominated by men.

4.Best hero and heroine of all time:

Nothing could come close to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. As a couple, even with their prejudices and pride, they are immortal. I know that a little bit of Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy have rubbed off on two of my main characters in Fire on the Water: A Companion to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Their sensibilities and ideals are hard to ignore.

5.Greatest monster ever created (besides Frankenstein):

The greatest monster ever created (besides Frankenstein) would be the one that is closest to reality without the need of the paranormal. For me it is Hannibal Lector—rooted in the depths of our most frightening nightmares but so very, very real. The same can be said for the monster(s) in Frankenstein and Fire on the Water: A Companion to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Despite their origins, they are real flesh and blood with underlying motives that may be seen as good or evil.

6.If you could live in any time period what would it be:

Every age is a new age with its own excitement and uncertainties. I want to live in them all and perhaps that is why I am a writer.

7.Favorite food:

Could anything possibly be better than a handmade pizza and a glass of Pino Grigio while overlooking Lake Lugano, Switzerland? Perhaps a pot of fondue and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at a sunny, lakeside restaurant in Montreux, Switzerland.

8.Biggest fear:

My biggest fear is not being able to let my imagination have its own way, and not being able to let my characters lead me to where they want to go.

Related

3 thoughts on “P.J Parker’s Fire on the Water Blog Tour”

Since absolutely no one else has visited this post, thus far, which is almost unprecedented, I am going to like and comment to myself. I think that this is an awesome book and a great author. I really enjoyed the interview with P.J. Parker. Christ. Have I been driven to madness by lack of views of this post – maybe.